Farming and Gardening

Imagining Our Dream Farm: Slow living with Friends

Farming and Gardening Vision and Manifesto
terrace with comfortable couches and armchairs around table

It’s Sunday and we’re on relax mode, watching videos on Albanian Village Life. Inspired by this family in the rural mountainside, we again imagine our own dream farm, allowing ourselves to say things out loud:

I see a nice bungalow home giving that feeling of a wide open space even inside its walls. Think Pinterest farmhouse with the rustic, shabby chic vibe, worn out on the edges and wildly tame–a beloved, inviting home. We’ll have open-plan living and dining spaces, extending to a covered wraparound veranda that has retractable glass roofing, walls and windows. Screened during summer to ward off bugs, and closed off as a sunroom aka winter garden in the colder months.

Outside we have a wide open field perfect for games, picnics and our daughter’s major must-have, a tree house. All around are blooming bushes and fruit trees. We grow our own tomatoes, apples, plums, apricots, oranges, mulberry, lemons, malterri (Japanese plums), pears and pomegranate–a bigger version of our small family garden here in Turkey. This is in the Mediterranean, so it will have Mediterranean greens and herbs: flourishing bushes of rosemary, mint, basil, parsley, spring onions. We’re planting foreign vegetables and fruits too (non-invasive), because this farm is home to us in multiple ways. It’s a capsule of treasured travels and moments lived elsewhere, and what better way to enliven those moments than to nurture and cultivate heirloom seeds from around the world. Maybe we’d be able to grow bananas and calamansi, bringing us the smells and flavors of the Philippines in Europe.

Many Visiting and Gathering Spaces

Around us in courtyard fashion are wooden and stone guesthouses. Standalone villas where friends are welcome to visit to retreat into farm life or stay and become neighbors. Inspired by living architecture, the farm is both streamlined and abundant, expansive and tender, modern and natural. There are nooks and crannies everywhere, freeform spaces to connect with nature or just be alone. In the center are communal places that invite conversations and shared activities–an open kitchen, lounge, library (with the rolling ladder!), breathing space. There’s an oven and open pit for a bonfire and barbeque. A place for bodywork and celebrations.

anonymous little girl drawing on ground with chalks

It’s also a home to nurture our inner child, a safe place to play and experiment. We walk barefoot in our garden, to ground and discharge. I want a 100% organic section for humans too, with wifi jammers, and maybe even the foils and fringe science stuff to protect the space from radiation and waves. An outdoor womb to embrace us and detox us from modern life. Maybe a natural pool.

We make our own butter, cheese, jams, honey, and liquor, and find as much joy in the production process as in the actual farm-to-table wining and dining.

There are art studios, tinkering labs, makerspaces–a coworking space for creatives. And one for businesses.

There’s also a natural school that uses holistic technology to provide a living education that’s personalized to the talent, capacity, and interests of the child. It’s a blend of protecting the sense of wonder and magic in children, and including them in the joys of modern life.


Food Production for Our Home and Beyond

Koray is Mr. Scale, so he searches for organic chicken farming online and finds a video of a poultry farmer with 1,000 chickens in Cannakale, Turkey. I see the wheels turning in his head. The food engineer in him is already doing the math for a scalable system for eggs, meat and dairy production. We’re not just farming for our own consumption. It will make business sense. Nothing will go to waste.

I plow through the Turkish dialogue thanks to automated subtitles, and get schooled on how chickens are raised. Nope, (don’t laugh) we won’t be chasing after chickens to catch their eggs after all, and nope, free-range and organic don’t necessarily go together.

I gravitate more towards the homesteading videos, where farming is more personal and for the household. I like the one by the backyard farmer with 6 hens in a chicken mansion, all being tended to as pets. I learn that there are farms designed for meat and farms just to harvest eggs.

brown and black hen with peep of chick outdoor

Yin and Yang Farming

My interest is more on the farming lifestyle itself of slowing down, making everyday living sustainable. I’ve done my share of farm visits around the Philippines, both for tourism and for learning courses on Permaculture, Vermiculture and Biodynamic Farming. I like the personal investment in farming: touching the earth myself, cultivating the soil with my bare hands, naming my livestock.

When I first started dreaming up my perfect lifestyle, I always saw it on a farm next to the mountains and sea, with that synergy of nature and tech. I saw myself growing old on a small-scale beach farm community equipped with the latest tech innovations. Koray and I jokingly call it glamfarming, maybe similar to what most would call a weekend farm–a place to relax and grow my own food in an enjoyable way, with just enough surplus to gift to friends and family.

Now that I’m approaching two years in a four-season country, I have a deeper respect for and connection to the rhythm of nature, and the call to live according to this rhythm is ever stronger. The icing on the cake is the community: to have like-minded neighbors and pool resources for support (economic, social, wellness, spiritual) and smart living, such as greentech, agritech, housing tech, edutech. Wow, right?

With Koray bringing in his food production expertise and our 5-year-old needing a school community, step one is to build a prototype that works as a hub for business, education, creativity and joy. Then we can replicate this in different parts of the world, with each location tapping into the local environment, culture, talent, and energy. At their core, these farms are energy centers, bringing in elevated environments, livelihoods, and everyday living. These in turn elevate the mind, heart, and sense of self.

We have done location search in the Philippines, Turkey, Mediterranean Europe, and Central and South America, and we are zeroing in on Albania for the farm because of its designation as a 100% organic country. Montenegro and Macedonia are also tied into the mix as possible locations for an urban annex.

No doubt about it, we will build the farm of our dreams: a yin and yang farm and a happy place for us that is personal plus.

If you’re interested in joining us on this journey, send me a message, would be happy to have a chat.

Beautiful purple plants! Milk Thistle & Germander

Life in Turkey Farming and Gardening

Beautiful purple plants! And one of them is the milk thistle, which I thought was a prized plant tended in a garden…turns out it’s a widespread wild flower, even covering full hillsides.⛰️ If you’re wondering why it sounds familiar, it’s a key ingredient for supplements for nursing moms–so it’s a superfood growing so abundantly here for free. It’s also been used for liver, kidney and gallbladder diseases. Wow 🀩

The other purple shrub is the shrubby germander, a silvery-gray member of the mint family popular in landscaping home gardens. We thought it was lavender at first, but the aroma is very faint. Bees looooove them πŸπŸ’œ

Nature walk by the seaside
April 2023

Do you cultivate your inner garden to become more balanced and wholehearted?

Farming and Gardening Everyday Life

I spent about an hour yesterday morning doing this. There’s something therapeutic about touching the earth–and it’s especially pleasant when it feels cool and damp. It’s the next best thing we condo people have to #earthing.

My entrepreneur profile is Creator, always with new ideas and my head in the clouds. The opposite energy is Tempo energy, the slow-footed Trader working with perfect timing and her ear to the ground. I use just 4% of this energy in me, so it’s always a deliberate effort to stay rooted and connected to the earth.

Do you know your natural genius? And do you cultivate your garden to become more balanced and wholehearted?

#gardening #mygrovehome #alayaph #entreplife

Lesson on month 3 of gardening: Pests are inevitable.πŸ›

Enterprise and Wealth Creation Farming and Gardening

The Alaya Mindset: “I am prepared for whatever comes.”

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Last night, I found 4 bald tomato stalks on my sprouting tray, with the culprit munching on neighboring leaves 😡
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Despite being indoors and 22 floors up, a worm managed to crawl into our garden. Quite timely too, as that morning I was musing about having zero pest problems, and perhaps needed a wake up call.
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My takeaway:

Prepare for all possibilities, desirable and undesirable. It’s good to be reminded that things can always turn sideways, and that the effective mindset to take on is not “Everything will be okay” but “I am prepared for whatever comes.”

Morning lesson from the garden

Farming and Gardening Enterprise and Wealth Creation

The Alaya Mindset: “I tend to my own life pot, soil and environment.”

Two alugbati cuttings in the same pot, same soil, same weather conditions, and yet growing so differently in our garden. One is moving in spirals as a wild vine and the other sitting smugly in its center, sprouting in beautiful symmetry.Β 

What is this life force that is  so unique and asserts itself so undeniably?🌱 This life force is in all nature, including us.

Nice reminder to tend to our own pot, soil and environment–to keep them nurturing and permitting of all surprises and possibilities. To welcome both rain and sunshine, and watch out for pests.

What’s in your life garden? Are you getting enough nutrients: good food, quality sleep, inspiring conversation? Are you open to sunshine: things, experiences or people that warm and excite you? How about rain: those that keep you relaxed and flowing? And what are you doing to protect yourself from pests, or seasons of drought, like the COVID19 pandemic?

How about your business garden? Are you tending to your entrepreneur soil and business environment?

Today is Monday, and we’re crossing over to the second half of 2020 in 2 days. Here’s hoping for better, more nurturing days ahead. πŸ™

Tree cutting day

Farming and Gardening Everyday Life

Got to my parents’ house today and saw workers about to cut off big branches of this tree, which was overgrown and causing damage to the wall and fence. I’ve never witnessed a tree cutting before and, not to be dramatic, but I felt a sadness come over me. I asked mom if she talked to the tree first and we gave it our thanks and kindness. I felt the clear sap from the first branch that fell–parang umiyak siya! We collected the branches and made trunk stumps that will be sure to get lots of TLC. Thank you, tree.

#tree #down

Summer greens in Nuvali

Life in Nuvali Philippines Farming and Gardening Sustainable Living

Look at what greeted us in Nuvali after a year of being city-based:

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Ligaw na sitaw! This just grew in the wild.

This is our papaya tree out front, now bearing fruit:
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Perfect for tinola, I\’ve been told. This tree was not even an inch high a year ago.

Was also nice to see our ivy slowly making progress in covering our front garden wall…
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…And our passion flower vine climbing all around the trellis:
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The flower of this vine is so lovely. Here\’s a pic from last year:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151454752347216&l=8f970994f6

One thing I miss about living in the South is the abundance of fresh flowers. These are my neighbor\’s purple blooms by the sidewalk:
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The Green Ribbon is also in much better shape now, although personally I\’d still prefer to leave it a little wilder or less manicured.
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All in all, Nuvali is getting greener and greener — which is its promise after all. I just hope the management is ready to hire grasscutters round the clock, especially with the coming rainy season!

Melons and summer harvest

Life in Nuvali Philippines Farming and Gardening Food Sustainable Living,

Such sweet melons from Robinson’s Supermarket Nuvali!

We did a quick stop last night to restock on fruits at home and were surprised to find the fruit pile almost emptied out, but for melons and papayas (even bananas were sold out). Seems everyone had fruit salads over the Holy Week. Was glad for it though– I tend to skip the melon corner on a regular day because I can\’t blend them in my green smoothies (melons are best eaten alone). This batch was so sweet and delicious, I finished the whole thing in one sitting! Wasn\’t able to take a pic of the uncut melon, but it was of the yellow skin variety. Still have two white cantaloupes waiting on the kitchen counter, along with other summer fruits:

I had to go back for the bananas and mangoes this afternoon, but am happy to share that the squash above is from our own garden. πŸ™‚ The plant grew out of our compost pit last year, so we moved it to a nice sunny spot, and voila– three months after, we harvested our first homegrown kalabasa!

Here\’s another happy leafy green that sprouted from a fallen seed:

Very thankful for the fertile Nuvali soil.

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Composting — first attempt

Farming and Gardening Sustainable Living

Been dumping our wet kitchen waste in a compost pit at home…

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It\’s literally a hole we dug up and cover with soil when needed, to keep bugs at bay.

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Don\’t know if we should be adding anything to the mound, but decided to just go ahead and do it instead of over-researching it and ending up not doing anything (happens to me all the time!).

Anyone who composts here? Care to share your experience? πŸ™‚

Harvest time!

Farming and Gardening Food Sustainable Living,

GIANT Langka from our Tagaytay garden:

Don’t they just make you smile? πŸ™‚

Harvested 3 huge ones just last week, and another one over the weekend.

When it came to cutting them open, didn\’t want to stain my fingers with the smell, so took a knife and fork and sliced away methodically.  Was surprisingly therapeutic, felt as if I was carving meat.

Also very happy to harvest so many bananas and papayas:

Great for breakfast smoothies.  They\’re all very delicious, and taste ever the sweetest because they\’re homegrown.

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Will need to decide on what to plant in my Nuvali garden soon.  Space is small so need to plan properly.   Care to share what you\’ve planted in yours?